Abstract In chapter 5 of UBD, the main point here is figuring out the evidence of a student’s learning assessment. What evidence suggests that students have an understanding of material in the classroom. There are three steps in this. The first is made with an analogy that illustrates the author’s point very well. Photo albums vs snapshots, snapshots represent stops on the way, pictures are the actual assessment, while the photo album remains to be the over arching theme. This keeps the curriculum from being narrowed down to test topics.This website is great tool to use in the classroom for student assessment. The second assessment principle is matching measurements with goals. How do these two ideas size up to one another? How do students find out if the student has met the goal? Has the student done everything they were supposed to do in understanding the broader concept? The last is if the can convey the different types of knowledge through declarative, procedural, dispositional aspects. If the student can manage to do all of these things then the student was successful. The chapter also goes over how important it actually is to understand something, not just to memorize something and then use it. For example, if you were to just memorize an equation and not understand it then the material eventually become difficult to grasp. Understanding the equation helps the student out long term, while memorizing the equation only helps students in the short run. The student may done well for that test they took, but eventually not understanding the equation will come back to bite them.
Synthesis Backward design seems to be the flavor of the month in these write ups, which is understandable because it is such an important concept for us to grasp as teachers. Backward design is the way it sounds in terms of how the idea works. In a nutshell, teachers set the goal for students before they map out what they are doing to get to the goal. Backward design is based on the belief that students should know where the journey is going without a road map. This website goes further into backward design and many other concepts that are relevant to not only this chapter, but this course as well.
Sara
In chapter five of IntegratingDifferentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design, the main focus is assessment. Backward design tells us that it is best to start with assessment and decide how and what students will be assessed on. By thinking of the end result first it allows teachers to then create lesson plans that will prepare students for this ultimate goal. When thinking about what teachers want to assess their students they need to take into account the standards that are required and what they want to focus on. When it comes to the how, this is where a teachers knowledge of their students’ needs to come in. If a teacher knows what intelligences the students excel in and which they do not, it would beneficial for the students and the teacher to use this to their advantage. Students would be happier because the teacher is truly thinking about them and how they succeed. For the teacher it will allow them to accurately judge if students have mastered the concept or not. Standardized test are not completely a terrible idea. The concept behind this testing is sound, however the execution is what is lacking. Standardized test now force teachers to spend more time on material students will be tested on, instead of something that could be more important. These tests also do not take into account different student’s needs, so while they do produce some results they are not as accurate as a different assessment could be. A teacher’s assessment who has taken into account the students would be much more accurate and helpful for students and teachers.
Cheyenne
This chapter goes over assessment, what that means, and using the backwards design model to plan your assessments. One thing that I keep noticing throughout these readings, especially this one, is why my teachers used to do certain things and what they were doing that didn’t really fit in with differentiated learning. For instance, I never understood why teachers would require students to show their work or to explain how they reached an answer. But it all makes perfect sense after reading this and realizing that they weren’t just looking to see if we had knowledge in the subject, but if we were really understanding it. Asking students to explain how they got an answer is also a really good tool for teachers to see where students are tripping up. If a student gets a wrong answer but doesn’t explain how they got there, then the teacher wouldn’t be able to look and see where the fault is. It can also show that a student does have an understanding of the material, they just missed a step or may have mixed up information on accident, both things that I have done.
Another part of this chapter that struck a chord with me is feedback. Feedback is so important to me, especially as an aspiring English teacher and as someone who enjoys writing. So often, the only feedback I would get on essays from teachers for most of my school career would be things like “elaborate”, “awkward phrasing”, or “good,” as well as a short sentence or two at the end. This kind of feedback isn’t helpful, and I’m really glad this chapter touched upon that. I always try to give extensive feedback in peer editing and it’s something I intend to bring into my classroom as well.
Sarah
I learned a couple of extremely important terms and ideas in this chapter. This chapter introduced three different types of knowledge and gave the definition for each one. The three types of knowledge are declarative, procedural, and dispositions. The three types of knowledge were listed as the three types of educational goals. I also learned about the three different types of assessment. The chapter gave the definition and examples for each one. The three different types of assessment are summative, diagnostic, and formative. I learned about the concept of GRASPS and what each letter stands for. Some of the big ideas that I got from the chapter talked about evidence. Three of the important messages that I got out of this chapter are: 1) reliable assessment demands multiple sources of evidence, 2) a variety of classroom assessments may be used to gather evidence of mastery, and most importantly 3) a single test at the end of instruction is less likely to provide a complete picture of a student’s learning than a collection of diverse sources of evidence is. I also learned about the important of feedback. The book says that feedback should be timely, specific, understandable, and should allow for adjustment. All of these concepts impacted me and they will all impact the way that I teach. Instead of giving a test at the end of a unit, I know now that it is best to give diagnostic assessments before I begin the unit, formative assessments during the unit, and then to give a summative assessment at the end of the unit.
Lydia
This chapter is about the importance of how to determine which assessments are acceptable to help students learn the content. It describes the three types of assessments which are summative assessments, diagnostic assessments and formative assessments. The book explains that they are all important, but as a teacher you need to know when it is appropriate to use each one. This would affect me because I need to know if some of my students have test anxiety or if they are better at showing what they learned by taking a test. I would also benefit as a teacher if I made students take pre-tests before I teach the content. This will benefit me because I will be able to determine if I need to teach at a more advanced level at that topic or a more remedial level. Other reasons why assessments would be useful to me is to determine if the students understood the content that I have just taught. Another way that I must consider assessments is to determine if it should be in the form of a test or in the form of a project. I also have to determine what work will engage learning and make the student think. One of the things that I could do to is how do themes in the past relate to today. If I understand what my students strengths are I will be able to determine when or what their assessment should be. To determine what my students strengths are I can give them assessments on what they think the best way to learn is. It is also important for students to give me feedback as a teacher so I can keep learning what will be best for my class.
Cory
This chapter in general talked about assessment. I personally enjoyed looking at the 3 different principles of assessment, agreeing with all of them for the most part. The first principle is to consider it as more of a photo album rather than a snap shot. For the most part, a photo album consists of many different snap shots overtime. This is how tests should be taken. You have to look at the tests overtime, rather than individually. If you look at them individually then you miss the over all improvement you might see. You have to take it one step at a time. If they fail the first test, you can’t panic. You need to see where they went wrong, try and help them improve on those areas, and then see how they do on the next test. If there is an upward trend when it comes to assessment, then a teacher is doing their job well. The second principle is to match the measures with the goals. The analogy that I had gotten the most out of out of this section was the one comparing testing and teaching to coaching. In sports, your coaches have you do drills to prepare you for a game. In teaching, we do the same thing. Our lessons are our drills, and then the “games” are our tests. One could also think of it that we are teaching kids to be in the real world. Our drills could be preparing them for the real game, that is the real world.
Laura
I found this chapter to be especially helpful in allowing me to think about the goals of assessment and how those goals are best met. I will definitely keep the three assessment principles in mind when deciding how I will assess my future students. Because I absolutely loathe the idea of “high stakes” testing (as I’m certain most teachers do), I agree that it is extremely important to “consider photo albums versus snapshots” when it comes to assessment. While I understand that imposition of high stakes tests is sometimes beyond the control of teachers, it is comforting to know that the assessment practices we use within the confines of our own classrooms do not have to follow the model of standardized testing. Since I will be teaching English, I would like to avoid testing as much as possible and still feel that I will be able to readily and accurately assess my students through series of more open-ended and “natural” measures, such as journals, essays, presentations, and observations (this is not to say that such measures would be difficult to use in a math or science classroom, either). Also, when I am teaching a unit, I certainly want to incorporate differing methods of assessment versus relying on the same method over and over again. Not only does using different methods of assessment keep learning more interesting for the students, it also “increases the opportunity for students to work to their strengths” as mentioned on page 63. When deciding which forms of assessments to use at what point in the unit, I will be sure to focus first on the goals of the unit, as stated in assessment principle number two, and to keep in mind that form always follows function, using a successive combination of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.
Rhi
Assessment is a huge part of the student learning process. Without assessments it is hard for us teachers to know how well our students are understanding the material being taught to them. I think an important aspect of assessment that has been brought up in previous chapters along with this one is incorporating the students into everything that goes on within a classroom. The easiest way to find out if a student is getting the material or if they need further help is just to ask them. Obviously it’s crucial to use concrete forms of assessments like testing, projects, things like that, but at the route of all that, the student is the one who truly knows what they need and how they’re doing. I really liked the topic about considering a students understanding and assessments as a “photo album” rather than a “snapshot” (p.60). Collecting information over time is much more affective and informative for a teacher or a parent than testing them over all the material at the end and assuming/expecting them to know everything. Assessment is something that takes time and makes it easier to know where your students are at throughout and to better assist them in areas that they may not fully understand. A lot of teachers don’t do this. I know a lot of times in my English classes, teachers would use a quote section on tests and look for the most random quotes throughout the book that really had no importance to what we were focusing on in the class. Assessment is a tool for students to show they know what they’ve been taught, not to make sure they can memorize every little detail of everything they’ve read or heard in the class.
Katelin
This chapter seemed to be a lot about assessing a student. How do we do it effectively? What do we assess? How can we use assessment for learning, not just taking a test? The chapter mentioned pre-assessments which I have always loved and I know I will use. Math is a subject that students come in with an extremely different background of knowledge from different extremes. I know I will use pre-assessments to see what I need to clear up for students, who is going to master the material, etc. I liked how the chapter mentioned that each type of test favors certain type of learners. It completely makes sense because I have always said that I am a bad test taker, but this is not quite true because I do not fail every test, but there are tests that I can take over and over again and know the material, but always score poorly. For example, the book said that selected response assessments favors students that have good recall and recognition. Some units we teach will require more than one assessment if they are super important for us to know that the students really mastered it. I also love the idea of quickie quizzes because I have always wanted to give the students these after homework because it is easy to cheat with someone in the class, and you may have not gotten your homework correct. If I do these quizzes, it encourages the students to do their homework, and I can see where the misconceptions are the day before, so I can help clear them up in my next lesson.
Shane
In Chapter 5 of UbD there were some great points about various different assessments that should and can be used in a classroom setting. I personally have a strong belief and hatred for Standardized testing. I don’t think you can use testing to represent knowledge, knowledge should be represented through projects, presentations and other types of assessments. As someone who is very kinesthetic I would prefer a hands on activity to work on like a poster or something along those lines. I understand that some students are not the same types of learners as me, so I get some people are going to have a preference to write a paper and as a teacher sometimes giving a quiz or test is going to be necessary to assess some learning but I believe there should be other methods. I think as a future educator I do not want to live and breathe by the code of standardized test. I think we need to take a step back from the politics of the test like the SATs and other exams that make kids feel like that defines them as a learner. I am not being this aggressive because I had average Sat scores, but things like the praxis defining whether or not you are a good teacher. The point about assessments letting students work on their strengths and hopefully letting them succeed more really resonated with me because as a teacher that’s what I hope to do. I don’t want to just highlight the lows, but want to give my students the best chance at success. Although I do not agree with all of the principles the reading was eye opening and helped me realize what I want to do.
Cooper
This chapter again mainly focuses on assessment. It talks about the three types of assessment which are formative assessment, summative assessment, and diagnostic assessment. Each of these serve a different purpose in giving the teacher insight on the students. Overall we can use assessment for many different things, chiefly among them being to use assessment as a measuring stick to see how you can make the students reach your ultimate goals for the course. If you find out that your students may benefit from you employing a particular approach that may not have been the case for other classes you’ve taught then you can alter your lessons to better fit the needs of that classroom. Another way of using assessment that goes beyond planning is using it to determine students understanding or mastery of the material. You may see test after test coming back as with no errors but if you’re not asking questions that assess understanding then you may be setting them up to fail in the future. Before moving on from any content it is wise to ensure that your students fully grasp the content rather than simply memorizing it. If students have been memorizing material and are doing well in class you may be inclined to think there are no issues of understanding in the classroom, but when assessment is altered for the final test and students do poorly it may be too late to address a lack of understanding in the classroom that you weren’t even aware of.
RSSar This chapter goes over assessment, what that means, and using the backwards design model to plan your assessments. One thing that I keep noticing throughout these readings, especially this one, is why my teachers used to do certain things and what they were doing that didn’t really fit in with differentiated learning. For instance, I never understood why teachers would require students to show their work or to explain how they reached an answer. But it all makes perfect sense after reading this and realizing that they weren’t just looking to see if we had knowledge in the subject, but if we were really understanding it. Asking students to explain how they got an answer is also a really good tool for teachers to see where students are tripping up. If a student gets a wrong answer but doesn’t explain how they got there, then the teacher wouldn’t be able to look and see where the fault is. It can also show that a student does have an understanding of the material, they just missed a step or may have mixed up information on accident, both things that I have done.
Another part of this chapter that struck a chord with me is feedback. Feedback is so important to me, especially as an aspiring English teacher and as someone who enjoys writing. So often, the only feedback I would get on essays from teachers for most of my school career would be things like “elaborate”, “awkward phrasing”, or “good,” as well as a short sentence or two at the end. This kind of feedback isn’t helpful, and I’m really glad this chapter touched upon that. I always try to give extensive feedback in peer editing and it’s something I intend to bring into my classroom as well.
Table of Contents
Dominick
Abstract
In chapter 5 of UBD, the main point here is figuring out the evidence of a student’s learning assessment. What evidence suggests that students have an understanding of material in the classroom. There are three steps in this. The first is made with an analogy that illustrates the author’s point very well. Photo albums vs snapshots, snapshots represent stops on the way, pictures are the actual assessment, while the photo album remains to be the over arching theme. This keeps the curriculum from being narrowed down to test topics.This website is great tool to
use in the classroom for student assessment. The second assessment principle is matching measurements with goals. How do these two ideas size up to one another? How do students find out if the student has met the goal? Has the student done everything they were supposed to do in understanding the broader concept? The last is if the can convey the different types of knowledge through declarative, procedural, dispositional aspects. If the student can manage to do all of these things then the student was successful. The chapter also goes over how important it actually is to understand something, not just to memorize something and then use it. For example, if you were to just memorize an equation and not understand it then the material eventually become difficult to grasp. Understanding the equation helps the student out long term, while memorizing the equation only helps students in the short run. The student may done well for that test they took, but eventually not understanding the equation will come back to bite them.
Synthesis
Backward design seems to be the flavor of the month in these write ups, which is understandable because it is such an important concept for us to grasp as teachers. Backward design is the way it sounds in terms of how the idea works. In a nutshell, teachers set the goal for students before they map out what they are doing to get to the goal. Backward design is based on the belief that students should know where the journey is going without a road map. This website goes further into backward design and many other concepts that are relevant to not only this chapter, but this course as well.
Sara
In chapter five of Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design, the main focus is assessment. Backward design tells us that it is best to start with assessment and decide how and what students will be assessed on. By thinking of the end result first it allows teachers to then create lesson plans that will prepare students for this ultimate goal.When thinking about what teachers want to assess their students they need to take into account the standards that are required and what they want to focus on. When it comes to the how, this is where a teachers knowledge of their students’ needs to come in. If a teacher knows what intelligences the students excel in and which they do not, it would beneficial for the students and the teacher to use this to their advantage. Students would be happier because the teacher is truly thinking about them and how they succeed. For the teacher it will allow them to accurately judge if students have mastered the concept or not.
Standardized test are not completely a terrible idea. The concept behind this testing is sound, however the execution is what is lacking. Standardized test now force teachers to spend more time on material students will be tested on, instead of something that could be more important. These tests also do not take into account different student’s needs, so while they do produce some results they are not as accurate as a different assessment could be. A teacher’s assessment who has taken into account the students would be much more accurate and helpful for students and teachers.
Cheyenne
This chapter goes over assessment, what that means, and using the backwards design model to plan your assessments. One thing that I keep noticing throughout these readings, especially this one, is why my teachers used to do certain things and what they were doing that didn’t really fit in with differentiated learning. For instance, I never understood why teachers would require students to show their work or to explain how they reached an answer. But it all makes perfect sense after reading this and realizing that they weren’t just looking to see if we had knowledge in the subject, but if we were really understanding it. Asking students to explain how they got an answer is also a really good tool for teachers to see where students are tripping up. If a student gets a wrong answer but doesn’t explain how they got there, then the teacher wouldn’t be able to look and see where the fault is. It can also show that a student does have an understanding of the material, they just missed a step or may have mixed up information on accident, both things that I have done.Another part of this chapter that struck a chord with me is feedback. Feedback is so important to me, especially as an aspiring English teacher and as someone who enjoys writing. So often, the only feedback I would get on essays from teachers for most of my school career would be things like “elaborate”, “awkward phrasing”, or “good,” as well as a short sentence or two at the end. This kind of feedback isn’t helpful, and I’m really glad this chapter touched upon that. I always try to give extensive feedback in peer editing and it’s something I intend to bring into my classroom as well.
Sarah
I learned a couple of extremely important terms and ideas in this chapter. This chapter introduced three different types of knowledge and gave the definition for each one. The three types of knowledge are declarative, procedural, and dispositions. The three types of knowledge were listed as the three types of educational goals. I also learned about the three different types of assessment. The chapter gave the definition and examples for each one. The three different types of assessment are summative, diagnostic, and formative. I learned about the concept of GRASPS and what each letter stands for. Some of the big ideas that I got from the chapter talked about evidence. Three of the important messages that I got out of this chapter are: 1) reliable assessment demands multiple sources of evidence, 2) a variety of classroom assessments may be used to gather evidence of mastery, and most importantly 3) a single test at the end of instruction is less likely to provide a complete picture of a student’s learning than a collection of diverse sources of evidence is. I also learned about the important of feedback. The book says that feedback should be timely, specific, understandable, and should allow for adjustment. All of these concepts impacted me and they will all impact the way that I teach. Instead of giving a test at the end of a unit, I know now that it is best to give diagnostic assessments before I begin the unit, formative assessments during the unit, and then to give a summative assessment at the end of the unit.Lydia
This chapter is about the importance of how to determine which assessments are acceptable to help students learn the content. It describes the three types of assessments which are summative assessments, diagnostic assessments and formative assessments. The book explains that they are all important, but as a teacher you need to know when it is appropriate to use each one. This would affect me because I need to know if some of my students have test anxiety or if they are better at showing what they learned by taking a test. I would also benefit as a teacher if I made students take pre-tests before I teach the content. This will benefit me because I will be able to determine if I need to teach at a more advanced level at that topic or a more remedial level.
Other reasons why assessments would be useful to me is to determine if the students understood the content that I have just taught. Another way that I must consider assessments is to determine if it should be in the form of a test or in the form of a project. I also have to determine what work will engage learning and make the student think. One of the things that I could do to is how do themes in the past relate to today. If I understand what my students strengths are I will be able to determine when or what their assessment should be. To determine what my students strengths are I can give them assessments on what they think the best way to learn is. It is also important for students to give me feedback as a teacher so I can keep learning what will be best for my class.
Cory
This chapter in general talked about assessment. I personally enjoyed looking at the 3 different principles of assessment, agreeing with all of them for the most part. The first principle is to consider it as more of a photo album rather than a snap shot. For the most part, a photo album consists of many different snap shots overtime. This is how tests should be taken. You have to look at the tests overtime, rather than individually. If you look at them individually then you miss the over all improvement you might see. You have to take it one step at a time. If they fail the first test, you can’t panic. You need to see where they went wrong, try and help them improve on those areas, and then see how they do on the next test. If there is an upward trend when it comes to assessment, then a teacher is doing their job well. The second principle is to match the measures with the goals. The analogy that I had gotten the most out of out of this section was the one comparing testing and teaching to coaching. In sports, your coaches have you do drills to prepare you for a game. In teaching, we do the same thing. Our lessons are our drills, and then the “games” are our tests. One could also think of it that we are teaching kids to be in the real world. Our drills could be preparing them for the real game, that is the real world.
Laura
I found this chapter to be especially helpful in allowing me to think about the goals of assessment and how those goals are best met. I will definitely keep the three assessment principles in mind when deciding how I will assess my future students. Because I absolutely loathe the idea of “high stakes” testing (as I’m certain most teachers do), I agree that it is extremely important to “consider photo albums versus snapshots” when it comes to assessment. While I understand that imposition of high stakes tests is sometimes beyond the control of teachers, it is comforting to know that the assessment practices we use within the confines of our own classrooms do not have to follow the model of standardized testing. Since I will be teaching English, I would like to avoid testing as much as possible and still feel that I will be able to readily and accurately assess my students through series of more open-ended and “natural” measures, such as journals, essays, presentations, and observations (this is not to say that such measures would be difficult to use in a math or science classroom, either). Also, when I am teaching a unit, I certainly want to incorporate differing methods of assessment versus relying on the same method over and over again. Not only does using different methods of assessment keep learning more interesting for the students, it also “increases the opportunity for students to work to their strengths” as mentioned on page 63. When deciding which forms of assessments to use at what point in the unit, I will be sure to focus first on the goals of the unit, as stated in assessment principle number two, and to keep in mind that form always follows function, using a successive combination of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.Rhi
Assessment is a huge part of the student learning process. Without assessments it is hard for us teachers to know how well our students are understanding the material being taught to them. I think an important aspect of assessment that has been brought up in previous chapters along with this one is incorporating the students into everything that goes on within a classroom. The easiest way to find out if a student is getting the material or if they need further help is just to ask them. Obviously it’s crucial to use concrete forms of assessments like testing, projects, things like that, but at the route of all that, the student is the one who truly knows what they need and how they’re doing. I really liked the topic about considering a students understanding and assessments as a “photo album” rather than a “snapshot” (p.60). Collecting information over time is much more affective and informative for a teacher or a parent than testing them over all the material at the end and assuming/expecting them to know everything. Assessment is something that takes time and makes it easier to know where your students are at throughout and to better assist them in areas that they may not fully understand. A lot of teachers don’t do this. I know a lot of times in my English classes, teachers would use a quote section on tests and look for the most random quotes throughout the book that really had no importance to what we were focusing on in the class. Assessment is a tool for students to show they know what they’ve been taught, not to make sure they can memorize every little detail of everything they’ve read or heard in the class.Katelin
This chapter seemed to be a lot about assessing a student. How do we do it effectively? What do we assess? How can we use assessment for learning, not just taking a test? The chapter mentioned pre-assessments which I have always loved and I know I will use. Math is a subject that students come in with an extremely different background of knowledge from different extremes. I know I will use pre-assessments to see what I need to clear up for students, who is going to master the material, etc. I liked how the chapter mentioned that each type of test favors certain type of learners. It completely makes sense because I have always said that I am a bad test taker, but this is not quite true because I do not fail every test, but there are tests that I can take over and over again and know the material, but always score poorly. For example, the book said that selected response assessments favors students that have good recall and recognition. Some units we teach will require more than one assessment if they are super important for us to know that the students really mastered it. I also love the idea of quickie quizzes because I have always wanted to give the students these after homework because it is easy to cheat with someone in the class, and you may have not gotten your homework correct. If I do these quizzes, it encourages the students to do their homework, and I can see where the misconceptions are the day before, so I can help clear them up in my next lesson.Shane
In Chapter 5 of UbD there were some great points about various different assessments that should and can be used in a classroom setting. I personally have a strong belief and hatred for Standardized testing. I don’t think you can use testing to represent knowledge, knowledge should be represented through projects, presentations and other types of assessments. As someone who is very kinesthetic I would prefer a hands on activity to work on like a poster or something along those lines. I understand that some students are not the same types of learners as me, so I get some people are going to have a preference to write a paper and as a teacher sometimes giving a quiz or test is going to be necessary to assess some learning but I believe there should be other methods. I think as a future educator I do not want to live and breathe by the code of standardized test. I think we need to take a step back from the politics of the test like the SATs and other exams that make kids feel like that defines them as a learner. I am not being this aggressive because I had average Sat scores, but things like the praxis defining whether or not you are a good teacher. The point about assessments letting students work on their strengths and hopefully letting them succeed more really resonated with me because as a teacher that’s what I hope to do. I don’t want to just highlight the lows, but want to give my students the best chance at success. Although I do not agree with all of the principles the reading was eye opening and helped me realize what I want to do.Cooper
This chapter again mainly focuses on assessment. It talks about the three types of assessment which are formative assessment, summative assessment, and diagnostic assessment. Each of these serve a different purpose in giving the teacher insight on the students. Overall we can use assessment for many different things, chiefly among them being to use assessment as a measuring stick to see how you can make the students reach your ultimate goals for the course. If you find out that your students may benefit from you employing a particular approach that may not have been the case for other classes you’ve taught then you can alter your lessons to better fit the needs of that classroom. Another way of using assessment that goes beyond planning is using it to determine students understanding or mastery of the material. You may see test after test coming back as with no errors but if you’re not asking questions that assess understanding then you may be setting them up to fail in the future. Before moving on from any content it is wise to ensure that your students fully grasp the content rather than simply memorizing it. If students have been memorizing material and are doing well in class you may be inclined to think there are no issues of understanding in the classroom, but when assessment is altered for the final test and students do poorly it may be too late to address a lack of understanding in the classroom that you weren’t even aware of.RSSar
This chapter goes over assessment, what that means, and using the backwards design model to plan your assessments. One thing that I keep noticing throughout these readings, especially this one, is why my teachers used to do certain things and what they were doing that didn’t really fit in with differentiated learning. For instance, I never understood why teachers would require students to show their work or to explain how they reached an answer. But it all makes perfect sense after reading this and realizing that they weren’t just looking to see if we had knowledge in the subject, but if we were really understanding it. Asking students to explain how they got an answer is also a really good tool for teachers to see where students are tripping up. If a student gets a wrong answer but doesn’t explain how they got there, then the teacher wouldn’t be able to look and see where the fault is. It can also show that a student does have an understanding of the material, they just missed a step or may have mixed up information on accident, both things that I have done.
Another part of this chapter that struck a chord with me is feedback. Feedback is so important to me, especially as an aspiring English teacher and as someone who enjoys writing. So often, the only feedback I would get on essays from teachers for most of my school career would be things like “elaborate”, “awkward phrasing”, or “good,” as well as a short sentence or two at the end. This kind of feedback isn’t helpful, and I’m really glad this chapter touched upon that. I always try to give extensive feedback in peer editing and it’s something I intend to bring into my classroom as well.